Kitchen Talk: Contemporary Women's Prose and Poetry

Carolyn D. Redl is a sessional lecturer of English at the University of
Alberta.

This collection of contemporary women’s prose and poetry focuses on
“kitchen talk” about food and meals, but ranges far beyond to such
themes as mother/daughter, spousal, and family relationships. Selections
cross boundaries between religions, ethnicities, and cultures, and
between regions or urban and rural settings. Styles range from the
journalist’s interview to the highly literary and from the
experimental to the traditional. Selections are taken from published
novels, short fiction, and poetry, although a number are published here
for the first time.

The book concludes with 81 biographical notes on the authors;
biographical notes on the women interviewed are not included. The
writers are an impressive lot: Emily Carr, Sharon Butala, Lois Simmie,
Margaret Laurence, Adele Wiseman, Jane Rule, Gabrielle Roy, Audrey
Thomas, and up-and-coming writers including Anna Mioduchowska, Nadine
McInnis, alice lee, and Irene Boisier.

Each of the thoughtfully organized four sections takes its name from
the title of a selection therein: the first from M. Travis Lane’s
“Mal de Cuisine” (I would have preferred Gwendolyn MacEwen’s “A
Breakfast for Barbarians,” the first poem in the book); the second
from L.A. Martinuik’s “Coffee on Mary Hill”; the third from Julie
Emerson’s “The Lady of the House”; and the fourth from Jan
Truss’s “Mixed Messages.”

This collection has both historical and sociological value. Although no
date of publication appears with the selections, the book would prove
useful in a classroom, particularly one concerned with women’s
studies.